Part 12 - This is the Sequel to Jason's Story.

Kelly looks back over the past year, at all the changes in her life.

Chapter 29

Kelly sat at her desk and opened up her diary. She read thru the first entries, which had taken place soon after her friend Carol had been reunited with her mother.

Had it really been almost a year ago already?

September 5 — Meghan returned from spending the summer with her parents. Her father is still looking for a better position, but hasn't been able to find anything. He is working long hours at the supermarket, taking every opportunity he can for hours. Meghan did not see a lot of him, as a result, and when he was home he was pretty tired.

September 8 — Talked to Carol today. It was her first day going to school as Carol. She had a much smoother start to her first day, than I did. No broken legs, or bricks thru her window, but then I suppose she has had enough of that kind of thing to last a lifetime! She told me while there were certainly some that made no bones about being offended by her, that most of her class had made her feel welcome.

Kelly smiled as she thought about Carol, she had been thru so much, and had come so far from that tentative girl who didn't believe that Michele could do anything with her, that first makeover at her sleepover. It seemed like yesterday. Now she was just about to wrap up her first year of school, full time as Carol, and her confidence had grown, and grown. She even had a boyfriend now!

She skimmed thru the entries, looking at some of the highlights for the year.

October 10th — Tonight was Julie's birthday, she turned 16 today. Her party was a much more formal affair for her sweet 16, then my "Camp Kelly" day. They actually had rented a room at her father's club. Her whole extended family and all of her best friends. All of us girls wore beautiful gowns, and the guys were in suits. There was music and dancing, and really good food as well. Julie looked wonderful! There was a bit of an incident, when one of Julie's uncles, I think it was on her father's side, said something nasty about Julie and I. Julie's father told him that if he felt that strongly about it to take his comments and get the heck out. It looked like it was going to get pretty ugly, when Julie's Grandmother, all 4 foot 5 inches of her, pointed at them both, made them lower their heads then walloped them both right on the ears. She then waggled her finger at them, as they held their heads in shame, and said, "Now don't you to imbeciles go ruining Julie's Day, you hear!" I almost peed myself laughing.

Kelly laughed again, remembering the sight of Julie's father and his brother, being taken down a peg by her grandmother.

November 15th — Aunt Jessica filed for divorce today. "Irreconcilable Differences." That was the polite way of saying that Uncle Bob is a Grade A Asshole! Jessica told him point blank, and I quote, "I'm not going back to being a subservient, mindless automaton." I feel for Tom, he is so conflicted. His dad was his idol, but refuses to speak with him, or Billy, as they are in 'Satan's sway.' Yet, Tom has told me that his meetings with Minister Goodman have made him look at the teachings he grew up with, thru a different perspective. He says he feels reborn in his relationship with God, and that it is an affirming relationship, as opposed to the hate filled one that Reverend Tripard preached. He can never be content with that again, so he just prays that his father will someday break free, and find his own way."

Kelly felt somewhat responsible for the breakup of their family, but she knew that in the end there was nothing she could have done differently. She believed with all her heart that Tom, Billy and Aunt Jessica were now in a happier and healthier place then they would have been otherwise. Though she was sure she would not want to run across Uncle Bob in a dark alley.

December 15th — The annual chorus trip to the senior centers, was once again accompanied by Reverend Tripard and his minions, and their regular protest. But at least there were no tense greetings from the administrators. They knew what was coming in advance, and they had decided that the chorus event tradition was more important to their seniors, then worrying about what I was wearing. The reception the chorus gets from the seniors is overwhelming.

I just don't know…

Kelly read the entry again, and thought back to two weeks ago, when she had turned 17. She did have another party at the lake, on her actual birthday, and this time all the girls, including Carol had made it. That had been really special.

The day after they got back from their annual stay at the lake house, her mom had taken her for her driving test, and she had passed.

To celebrate her new license, she and Julie had gone to the movies and dinner, and she got to drive. It had been a fun night overall, and Julie had suggested that since the movie had let out a little early, and they didn't need to be home right away that they take a drive.

Kelly thought that sounded nice, so she agreed. She started to get a little nervous when Julie suggested they stop and just snuggle and talk. Kelly had been thinking a lot about starting to take the hormones though, so she had agreed, as she thought now would be a good time to mention it. She was waiting for a good time to broach the subject. Julie put the arm rest between the seats up and moved closer to Kelly, leaning her head on Kelly's shoulders.

They sat that way for a little while, just quietly. Julie turned her head slightly and kissed her on her cheek. "I love you, you know that Kelly?"

"I love you too, Julie."

Julie moved her hand across Kelly's stomach and up to her left breast. Kelly stiffened.

"Julie …"

Julie had pulled back, moved back across the seat and said, "Oh for God's sakes… let's just go home."

"Julie… please…" Kelly said, as tears started to fall.

"Look, Kelly, I'm sorry… I know better… I'm wrong, can we just go home now."

Kelly bit back what she was going to say, turned the car on and drove Julie home. As she drove home crying, she had to pull over to get under control. When she could she wiped her eyes, and went home.

She put the diary down, as the tears blurred her vision. That had been two weeks ago. Julie had not said more the three words to her in the past two weeks, and was not returning her calls.

Meghan was livid with Julie, and Kathy and Sue were trying to stay neutral. All Kelly knew was that it hurt.

Copyright (c) 2011. All Rights Reserved.

Author's Note:I want to try and pick up Kelly's story again. As you know it has been quite a while since I last updated this, and in part that has been because RL and work has been keeping me incredibly busy and tired. But the other reason was I had come to a point where the story needed to move forward. Her sophomore year simply did not provide the opportunity for anything new that I wanted to talk about, with the hormone blockers; it would have simply been more of the same.

So as you can see I'm moving the story forward a year and that will bring about the changes that come about as she starts to become an adult.

I hope that people are still interested in Kelly's story. I can't promise to post weekly, but I will be at least trying to post something on a regular basis, for now, and if I do get to a point where I can't continue to bring it to a reasonable stopping point.

As always, let me know what you think… I've missed Kelly myself, and am looking forward to seeing where this goes.

Hugs to all,
Kristy